FishTails by Ocean's — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

The most disgusting dining experience I’ve ever had. You can call this place whatever you want — “Ocean’s 14” location, new “FishTails by Ocean’s” (apparently their rebranding) — but it was an absolute disaster from start to finish.

I understand bad servers happen. It’s unpleasant, but it’s part of life. What I’ve never experienced before is management being the most unprofessional, rude, and downright hostile part of the evening.

My husband and I visited a few days ago, sat on the patio, and ordered drinks. Fun fact — every table around us had proper glasses or bottles. Ours came in plastic cups. I went to the bartender and politely asked for a glass for my wine (if I knew it would be in plastic, I’d have ordered a cocktail instead). The woman at the next table had her white wine served in glass, so why was mine in plastic? Instead of simply swapping it, the bartender gave me a little speech about “how disappointed he would be if I broke a glass on the patio” — again, the same patio where others had glassware. Then he handed me a clean but soaking wet glass.

Our server (dark hair, potato on legs, never introduced herself) recommended a dish, pointed at a plate on the next table, even got those guests to say how much they liked it. When our food arrived, it looked nothing like what she showed — what we saw was deep-fried, what we got was boiled/baked. I politely said, “That’s not the dish you pointed at”, and also noticed the menu mentioned asparagus, not broccoli. Her response, with attitude, was: “EAT YOUR FOOD” — and she walked away. No apology, no fix.

My husband went to speak to the manager, simply asking to address the tone the server used. Seconds later, I could hear my husband saying, “Can you please just stop yelling and hear me out?” — because the manager was shouting and swearing at him.

While he was trying to pay (mainly to make sure we weren’t charged for the wrong dish), our server stormed over, muttered something under her breath, ripped my plate out from under my fork and knife, took our still-full drinks without even asking if we wanted a box. When I asked about it, she told me I should leave immediately.”

The bill? Supposed to be around $70. Instead, we got a $150 check with five dishes listed for the three we ordered — and technically two, since one was wrong. Oh, and they run your card before placing your order. Now I see why.

When I went inside to request the customer copy of the credit card charge, the server loudly announced, “Here comes another one!” At the bar, the manager — in a high-pitched, aggressive tone — told me to get out. When I calmly stated that, as a customer, I have the right to a copy of the receipt, he kept yelling at me and refused to provide it.

And the best part? Checking my bank later, the $150 magically became $200. Apparently, they just add their own tip and hope you don’t notice.

If we hadn’t been in a rush, I’d have called the police — yes, it was that bad. And I’ve worked in the service industry — I know things go wrong. But a manager’s job is to fix problems, not escalate them.

To the owners: I know you spent 9 years building this place, and I’m sorry to leave such a review. But your manager’s behavior was completely unacceptable. Summer tourist season might keep you busy, but with that attitude, your off-season will be missing the local customers who keep you afloat the rest of the year.

P.S. You might want to check your system — some mistakes on the bill make me wonder if there could be issues with staff handling...

We took my kids (ages 10 & 7) to the Harry Potter themed night on Friday Oct. 25th for my daughter’s 7th birthday. We ordered the non-alcoholic potion-making for both kids as part of this establishment’s “kid friendly version”. Luckily for Fish Tails, their service was so unbearably slow that night that my children had plenty of time to open the viles and jars they were served and were smelling each one to see what they were adding to the mix (which also were labeled N/A on the lids presumably meaning no alcohol). My daughter proceeds to open a jar with the aforementioned labeling, smelled it, and handed it to me while gagging and saying that it did not smell right. I then smelled the liquid in the jar and confirmed that it was in fact alcohol. My wife also confirmed that it was alcohol. We immediately got our waitresses attention and asked her for confirmation, to which we were correct. When speaking to the manager (Kyle) that night, he was less than apologetic about the matter, and tried to offer 20% off our meal (as if we were going to stay after this inexcusable incident and proceed to order dinner there). The following day, we spoke to his supervisor on the phone who proceeded to tell us that no crime had been committed because my children did not actually consume the alcohol. She is obviously ignorant to VA laws on serving a minor alcohol. Their ABC managers were obviously negligent in handling the alcohol and labeling the viles and jars. This place is in desperate need of some training and education, and most definitely should be held accountable for their actions and their blatant negligence. Some basic customer service training wouldn’t hurt either, as the supervisor saw no wrongdoing, because my kid had the time to smell the jar and had the intelligence to know that something was not right about the contents. Regardless, that should not have been the responsibility of a child. That is why they have properly trained ABC managers in place.

Buyer beware - If you’re taking your children here, double check their...

We went Wednesday Jan. 3rd at a little after 4PM and walked in and up to the bar, as nobody was available to greet us. The bartender invited is to seat ourselves, - we had the pick of seating, as the only other customer was drinking at the bar.... but hey, it was only 4PM on a Wednesday in the off-season.

Within 2 minutes of sitting at a booth, we were informed politely but matter-of-factly that they would not he able to serve us, because they had no "back-up" - apparently this meant that their food service order either had not been delivered or had never been made.

Thus did we go elsewhere for dinner that evening. I called the next day, however, to see if their order had come in, as I still craved seafood... but nobody answered the phone - both times that I called, it rang for several seconds and then went to voicemail.

I then called the main desk of the hotel where they are located - the answering clerk did not speak English well and gave a bit of attitude, repeatedly saying that the restaurant was open despite being told that they were not answering their advertised number. He also could not or would not transfer my call into the restaurant or go inside to find someone to answer the phone... so, off to yet another restaurant for dinner.

It is hard to leave a good restaurant review when you are successfully prevented from ordering any food in the first place, or even finding out ahead of time if they...